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Researchers Make Breakthrough in Antibody Understanding

Mon, 03/30/2009

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A finding by a team of MIT engineers suggests that an attached sugar found on antibodies is unnecessary for effective functioning. This discovery means that the last barrier to mass producing therapeutic antibodies using bacterial or fungal means, rather than mammalian cells.

The group, which included CSAIL Principal Investigator Bruce Tidor, also examined the reason for the attachment’s existence to begin with. The theory is that if anything, it served as an evolutionary hook for the immune system to test out different bonding affinities among various antibodies. To read more about the project from the MIT News Office, click here